Symantec development surge produces Mobile Threat Protection

 A development surge at Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) has tackled one of today’s biggest IT challenges: mobile threat protection. Symantec has enhanced its enterprise mobility management solution, bringing together relevant technologies required to improve productivity and protect information across devices and applications to create a solution that allows enterprises to confidently embrace the mobile workforce.

“Symantec is the first company to integrate mobile device management, app wrapping, threat protection, and email client and browser apps into one enterprise mobility management solution,” said Amit Mital, chief technology officer of Symantec. “Across the enterprise, our security pedigree, unique intelligence insights and unparalleled ability to deliver comprehensive solutions set us apart. And we’re replicating that in the mobile space so our customers can give their employees the tools they need to remain productive, while ensuring the right security controls are in place to protect critical information.”

Protecting corporate data in today’s mobile environment is an increasingly complex IT challenge that spans devices, the cloud and data in transit. New mobility capabilities increase risk for data leaks, malware, unauthorized access and lost devices.

Symantec’s mobile development surge focused on providing enterprises with secure access to mobile apps, content and devices, as well as enforcement capabilities to manage access, policies, encryption and data loss prevention. Development efforts have introduced enhancements for protecting business email, one of the most widely adopted mobile applications.

Key Mobile Updates
Symantec has steadily developed the following mobile security and productivity enhancements:

Norton Mobile Security Integration: The integration of App Center and Norton Mobile Security produces capabilities unmatched by any other mobile device management solution. The combined tools deliver a single console that provides enforcement for device antivirus compliance and protects Android users from mobile malware, privacy risks, freeware, and fraudulent websites.

Symantec Sealed Program: Symantec's application wrapping technology helps customers easily manage a secure ecosystem of third-party licensed applications and enterprise applications in a single, secure workspace for corporate end users.

Norton Mobile Insight: A proprietary intelligence tool that processes 10,000 new apps every 24 hours provides dynamic analysis for apps in more than 200 app stores to determine potential security risks, privacy risks and potentially intrusive behavior.

Email Gateway: Released as a feature of App Center 4.4, the Email Gateway provides a secure buffer between mobile devices and Exchange Active Sync (EAS) email servers. By maintaining independence from existing EAS mail infrastructures, Email Gateway mitigates unauthorized access, malware, and malicious attacks on corporate email systems.

Secure App Proxy: Also in App Center 4.4, the Secure App Proxy provides granular, secure per-application access to corporate network resources. This allows enterprise administrators to extend access to data inside the corporate firewall without the need for device-level VPN or MDM controls.

Partner API's: In the App Center 4.4 update, new partner APIs allow external partners, like system integrators, telecommunications operators and service providers, to integrate App Center mobility capabilities into existing IT infrastructure or third-party applications.

Making Secure Logins Simpler for the End User: Symantec’s Push Authentication technology for Symantec Validation and ID Protection (VIP) Service removes the need to manually enter a PIN when logging into a VPN connection. Users can click “allow” and the VPN client will automatically log in.

Norton Spot: This beta app provides information on potential Android app threats to users before they download apps from Google Play. No other provider on the market offers this unique ability.

Looking Ahead
Email productivity will remain a key priority for enterprises. To meet this growing need, Symantec recently acquired NitroDesk and will integrate its mature email application with Symantec’s existing app-wrapping, device management, threat protection, data loss prevention, authentication and identity technologies to provide customers with a solution that improves business collaboration and out-of-office productivity. In addition, Symantec anticipates a steady wave of mobile enhancements to continue to roll out in the next several months to further enable mobile productivity and security for customers.